Taillight Assembly Repairs - Broken Tabs

Thought I'd share the following showing our low-buck fix for damaged taillight housings and missing mounting tabs. Being on a tight budget (the twins are starting college in 1.5 years! ), buying new/replacement housings was not an option. So here goes it!

We started by removing the assemblies and scraping off the old, dried out seals. A little heat and a scraper did the trick.

Before: The old seals weren't actually sealing anything!

One of the housings was somehow melted/warped? Note the melted/misshaped housing on right side.

But a little time with my heat gun and putty knife got it pretty close enough for my purposes. Heated the melted housing with a heat gun and pushed out with spoon to shape. Not perfect but good enough for my Hooptie!

Used POR15 Epoxy Puddy and JB Weld to form new tabs. It took several sessions to build up and rough shape the tabs. Each time I shaped the tabs using a Dremel Tool with router bits once the epoxy was fully cured. I could've ground/sanded the finish smoother but just wasn't that concerned about it for our application. Note: I heated up the POR15 Putty prior to mixing with made it much more malleable and easier to form/press into shape.

Once the tabs were close enough for me I drilled the pilot holes and opened them up with the router bit.

Last step was to paint the assemblies. The girls and I opted for Semi-Gloss black to tie then in with the black Go-Wing and future black striping kit. We hit the inside of the housings with rattle can "Chrome" and it really brightened them up. Should definitely throw a bit more light than before.